Thursday, March 31, 2011

Not an airline, shipping company or trucking company, but a railway: Fortune named Union Pacific the most-admired company among major transportation providers in its annual list in its 21 March edition. Webpage

UP ranked first in seven of nine attributes Fortune ranked: people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, and quality of services. It is a sizeable business in anyone's terms: UP's route map covers most of the central and western United States west of Chicago and New Orleans and operates on 32,012 miles (51,518 km) of track, of which it owns outright 26,171 miles (42,118 km). UP is also the largest landowner in the USA after the Federal government. UP website

It is always tempting to fly at a higher class than economy or coach, but unless you earn what a bank executive or big lawyer does, it's hard to justify the extra expense. Most of those who travel business class have their fares paid for them.

Regardless, here are the upper class interiors of the Emirates A380 fleet (and as you can see, they serve alcohol and hostesses aren't dressed in burkas).

Apart from the Wairarapa freight that could be moved over it, if it wasn't for Steven Joyce, the line serves as a good detour line for North Island Main Trunk trains when the line between Wellington and Palmerston North is closed for track maintenance. Here is a diverted NIMT freight train seen near Eketahuna recently. (Marty Melville photo)

Two views of Whangarei Station from about 90 years ago. In the first passengers are walking to the main platform area although the train isn't yet in sight. An old 3-rigid axle composite first and second class passenger car can be seen two tracks over. The second view taken a few years later shows a southbound passenger train - probably the express for Auckland from Opua - sitting at the platform while a couple of tank engines haul goods trains in the yard; the centre one has a couple of passenger cars in the consist.

Surprisingly, given that regular passenger cars haven't run on the line for over 30 years, the station is still there, but is now used for other purposes.

"Mikayla Edwards, just 13 years old, was beaten senseless by four schoolmates - hit with fists, feet and a toilet door. Today she is under 24-hour care at home and she doesn’t know when, or whether, she will ever go back to the classroom.

"Mikayla is just one of a number of victims of girl-on-girl bullying in New Zealand. She and her mother talk to 60 Minutes reporter Karen McCarthy." Stuff website story

There isn't anything new about this type of incident of course; it has existed for many years. The problem is that it gets worse as the people who ought to be doing something, do nothing. Adults may say, "yeah well that's the way kids are" and the Principal of this school, Morrinsville College, when interviewed on TV was a typical example of the "why are you talking to me for, what do you expect me to do?" dull, reluctant middle manager, the sort of person that most of us have experienced at some time when dealing with officialdom.

He claimed that the school has a duty to educate pupils - he also has a duty to enforce rules and provide a safe environment for his pupils, something he has clearly abrogated by not removing the young criminals. "They will go on to haunt the streets and end up in prisons if we don't provide education," he said. He didn't seem to realise that by not teaching these little brats a hard lesson they will probably end up in prison anyway.

More often than not school bullies if unreformed will go on to be vandals, burglars, partner-abusers, road pigs, and workplace bullies - and that affects the population at large.

One of the things you realise fairly quickly when you stand up to them, is that most bullies are also cowards; and when you put them on the receiving end instead, they will leave you alone - although sometimes you will need help doing that. There are plenty of legal ways available of putting bullies in their place.

Further to previous posts, the whole Kingston Flyer operation - train carriages, locomotives, buildings and land - is now on TradeMe online auction site (the New Zealand equivalent of eBay) - "Price by Negotiation". The previous news was that the mortgagee was holding out for its full debt, but now seems to have accepted that no-one is going to offer that much. Follow the auction here.

Alas not a book published or stocked by us, this mammoth book (in every respect) is the Ferrari official Opus and only 20 are being produced, one for each of 20 countries (NZ is not among them, but one is going to Australia, valued there at $US/A 275,000). Even for lawyers and bank executives that price tag may be a little steep, so cheaper books - at only a few thousand dollars each - are also available. Apparently the proceeds will go to charity. More info on this webpage

The Trams Down Under website has a big archive of tram photos from Australia and New Zealand, and is thus a good site for those interested in historic city transport. Below are just three of the scenes of Wellington trams found while trawling through it. Although technically deficient - much better scenes will be found in the books Wellington: a Capital Century and Wellington Transport Memories - they evoke a past era for those who grew up in the city.

Lambton Quay, the well known Kirkaldie and Stains department store across the street. Judging from the lack of traffic, this was almost certainly taken on a weekend.

A crossing in Kent Terrace, not far from Courtenay Place

The corner of Johnston Street with Customhouse Quay. Both trams seem to have the same route number 9, rather unusual for this location. The cars are quite typical of 1950s NZ.

While the TranzAlpine passenger train began running again on Monday 7 March following the disruption of the 22 February earthquake, the TranzCoastal (Christchurch-Picton) was given a bus replacement. We understand that when (or if) it resumes running will be put to the KiwiRail board next week. We hope that the result will be an immediate recommencement - it certainly makes no sense to do otherwise, but with the present anti-rail Minister of Transport Steven Joyce in charge, nothing, least of all common sense, can be taken for granted.

Obviously the number of people wanting to visit Christchurch itself will be reduced at present, but there is plenty of available accommodation outside the affected area, and Christchurch remains a hub for travel in the South Island. Fingers are crossed!

Three pieces of publicity art for the 1961 AMC Rambler station wagon and one for the Ambassador V8 saloon. As those who have the book 50 Years of Volkwagen in NZ know, they were assembled at the same plant in NZ that assembled VWs.

Mostar in Bosnia was named after the bridge keepers (natively: mostari) who guarded the Stari Most ("Old Bridge") over the Neretva river.

You only need to look at what buildings are in the background to realise some of the ethnic tensions that have existed in Bosnia-Herzegovina which flared violently in the early 1990s and led to the infamous war. The landmark footbridge was destroyed in the war on 9 November 1993 and rebuilt in 2004.

The caption on the postcard from the 1900s calls it the Römerbrücke or Roman bridge - actually it was completed in 1566. Probably the attention that resulted from its destruction and rebuilding has now made it one of Europe's most famous.

Description:
Hump-backed, 4 metres (13 ft 1 in) wide; 30 metres (98 ft 5 in) long, height 24 metres (78 ft 9 in).
Two fortified towers "protect" it: the Helebija tower on the northeast and the Tara tower on the southwest, called the bridge keepers (natively mostari).
The "arch" of the bridge was made of local stone known as tenelija. Instead of foundations, the bridge has abutments of limestone linked to wing walls along the waterside cliffs. Measuring from the summer water level of 40.05 m (131 ft 5 in), abutments are erected to a height of 6.53 metres (21 ft 5 in), from which the arch springs to its high point. The start of the arch is emphasized by a molding 0.32 metres (1 ft 1 in) in height. The rise of the 'arch' is 12.02 metres (39 ft 5 in).

Well, having mentioned it, here is a view of the town's main square. One of the area's former tramcars can be seen further along, now serving as an information booth. The Poles translated the name to Jelenia Gora, and both simply mean 'deer mountain'. A statue of a deer's head is also in the square, erected to mark the town's 900th anniversary in 2008. Although like much of Poland, the neglect of the communist years is still very evident, it and the neighbouring towns are places worth visiting.

We found this on the Verein Schlesische Gebirgsbahnen website mentioned in yesterday's post; not the highest signal mast in terms of altitude but the height of the mast itself, faithfully modelled on their layout. Today the site is no longer part of Germany, and the signal, which was at the entrance to the Nieder Schreiberhau station, has probably gone.

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All at Sea: stories of New Zealand seafarers

Narratives from interviews conducted over several years with 16 merchant navy sailors - 14 men and 2 women - who recounted their stories from the last full fledged sailing ship, the Pamir being returned to her home country of Finland after WWII to recent stories on today's inter-island ferries and coastal vessels, as well as international cargo and passenger ships which sailed to various parts of the globe. A full range of occupations are covered from Deck Boy, Engineer, Steward to Master as well as harbour pilots, union leaders and shipping company executives.

NZR Memorabilia

A fabulous new book containing many colourful illustrations of old postcards, pamphlets, posters, and a wide range of objects that have been used by the NZR and its personnel from the 1860s to the present time. Together they tell in visual form the importance of NZR to NZ and its people over the past 150 years and provides a useful reference for collectors.

Voyage to Gallipoli

Details of the troopships to the Gallipoli campaign of WW1 and more WW1 naval history.